It had been a month and a bit since Ashley's return - and for once, everything was going well.
She still trained every single day, either for her element control or in hand to hand combat with Natasha, Clint or, even Tony (when he had the time). She had been put on two minor missions alone since rejoining the Avengers, both of which she completed without a hitch or an accident. Then in between missions and training, she was either assisting Pepper with her work, having chilled girly nights in with Natasha - or she was spending time with Steve, who she'd been casually seeing for a while now. Of course, with Steve being Steve, he still hadn't asked her to be his girlfriend yet, and from the pace things were moving at, she wasn't totally convinced that he ever would - but she was trying to remain positive.
To be fair, a month and a half wasn't exactly long enough, was it?
This evening in particular, it was another Avengers Night. It was more of an improv one instead of their usual scheduled evenings, as Tony had a film coming out…about him. He'd pretty much begged the film company for the first copy months before its' scheduled release, and now that he finally had it, he was determined to make the film viewing a big event with snacks and drinks provided.
How could the team say no?
Steve was still downstairs finishing his daily workout session, whilst Ashley was upstairs in the main lounge with the others, refilling the popcorn bowls for the tenth time beside Natasha. "Sorry, did someone say they wanted salt and sweet?" Ashley clarified from behind the kitchen counter.
"Yeahhhh please!" Clint called out as Thor let out a hefty,
"Always!"
"So basically…pour the entire bag out and then some," Natasha murmured to her under her breath. Ashley let out a little knowing giggle and got to pouring, loving the sound of the soft popcorn kernels clanking against Tony's expensive china bowls. "Hey, have you heard from Christie recently?" Natasha suddenly asked quietly, darting her eyes up to Ashley's. They met each other's gazes for a brief second before Ashley focussed back on the popcorn bowls again.
"No," she answered shortly.
She hadn't heard from her sister since the X Men fiasco. From the day after, she found that she couldn't even get into contact with her. Coulson had revealed that Christie moved apartments once again, as she was allegedly concerned that too many people knew where she lived. Steve was convinced that she was secretly searching for Bucky, who she'd allegedly formed quite a close bond with; Thor was convinced she was taking the time out to mourn Loki, as it was what he suggested all those weeks ago - but truthfully, Ashley had no idea which theory was correct and she was her sister.
"Aren't you…I don't know, concerned?" Natasha pressed on. Ashley finally stopped pouring the popcorn and looked at her friend properly, wondering where all these sudden questions were coming from.
"I mean…are you?" she frowned, "I thought you two didn't even get along? You sound pretty worried yourself, Tash."
"As much as you'd love it if we did, I don't think your sister and I will ever get along. That's six years of history between us and we can barely be civil for ten seconds - I just find it…odd when she disappears off the radar for months on end and no one even bats an eyelid?" Natasha explained with a slight grumble.
"Um…don't you do the same thing sometimes?" Ashley pointed out with an innocent blink. "Ya know, like, go all ghost out of nowhere?"
"Yes and everybody wants to slaughter me for it," Natasha hissed back in irritation. But before Ashley could respond, the lift doors slid open to reveal none other than Steve for the first time that evening, who was typing something onto a digital tablet with a cute little frown on his face. It was still taking him some time to get used to all the technical stuff that he had missed out on over the years, and it certainly baffled him sometimes.
It was complicated, to be fair.
Still, Ashley's heart fluttered at the sight of him, trying not to get too visibly excited as he finally glanced up and met her gaze. His own eyes lit up once he noticed her stood in the kitchen, looking as pretty as ever in her baggy tracksuit bottoms and tight white vest top. Of course he quickly made his way over to her, put the tablet on the countertop and snaked his arms around her hips from behind. Ashley giggled girlishly whilst sliding the bowls over to Natasha so that she could take them to the impatiently awaiting team on the sofas. Then, she spun around to face the guy she was still falling deeply for with a small smile. "Good evening, Mr Rogers," she murmured, with her soft hands resting comfortably on his broad shoulders.
"Good evening, Miss Darmer," Steve hummed back, "and how are we today?"
"Well, I've been missing you quite a bit," Ashley frowned a little, resting her arms on his shoulders instead so that her hands dangled behind his neck. "But you know, other than that - fine!"
"Ah, I'm sorry, Ash," Steve gave a glum sigh back as his dark blonde eyebrows knitted together in regret. "I know we haven't had a real date in a while, I've been pretty…well…"
"…busy?" Ashley finished off with a tiny smirk. Steve shot her an apologetic smile back. "I know, Steve. I'm not mad. It was one of the first ever things you'd ever warned me about, remember? And hey, for your information, good sir - I've been just as busy!"
"Pffft. Well…" Steve started to playfully scoff.
"Okay! Not as busy but still busy!" Ashley giggled back, prodding his chest with each syllable as Steve chuckled back. Their muffled laughter caused Tony to briefly turn his attention away from the TV, and glare at them.
"HEY! AVATAR AANG AND BLONDE HAIRED STAR SPANGLED BANNER, CAN YOU CONTINUE YOUR LOVE CHAT SOMEWHERE ELSE?! I am trying to watch movie GREATNESS here!" he called out to them exasperatedly, before turning back round again with a huff. Ashley and Steve both gave a mirrored rolling of their eyes, having heard it all before. Tony didn't like romance unless it was his own - especially when the attention was meant to be on him to begin with. That never went down well with him, and why should it?
He was the Tony Stark, after all.
"Tone, it's not like there's anything particularly exciting happening," Bruce frowned quietly, gesturing towards the TV screen without so much as glancing up from his laptop.
"Not particularly exciting?! It is the story of me turned into a film! This is by far the best thing they've ever made on TV. And they want me to write a review on it first thing tomorrow for the New York Daily!" Tony exclaimed, whilst picking up his whiskey glass.
"Umm, wrong - they want ME to write a review on it first thing tomorrow for the New York Daily," Pepper corrected him from where she was resting her head in his lap, leaving Thor and Bruce to let out hearty chuckles. Tony frowned and lowered his gaze onto her own.
"I'm sorry - whose side are you on here, Miss Potts?" he hummed down to her.
"Yours, but call me 'Miss Potts' again and I'll never become a Mrs Stark," Pepper whispered back with a wink.
"Yikes," Bruce sang.
"Okaaay let's go to my room instead," Ashley whispered to Steve before taking his hands and pulling him out of the living room, as the group starting bickering amongst each other. They quietly slipped inside and Ashley shut the door behind her, leaving them alone for the first time in about a week. "So what's going on?" Ashley fluttered her eyelashes at him, taking a seat on her neatly made bed.
"I'm going to Washington for the day," Steve explained with a sigh, leaning against the wall opposite her. Ashley raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. She had many questions - but didn't want to sound overly obsessive.
"Oh? Anddd…what're you doing up there?" she frowned casually.
"I'm selling my apartment - well, kinda. S.H.I.E.L.D wants to use it as a base for the young recruits that Coulson's got going on right now," Steve explained shortly. "So really, I'm just going to move the rest of my stuff out. I wanted…I wanted to know if you'd come with me?"
Ashley's head snapped up and her face quickly broke out into a smile.
"Of course I will! When do we leave?"
"Tonight? I mean, if you can - we got another aircraft waiting for us at base, you can even nap on the flight if you want," Steve smirked back at her. "Unless, of course, you wanna finish watching Tony's precious 'Iron Man' film-"
"Yeeaaaah, I'll go pack an overnight bag," Ashley whispered with a smile, before leaping up with her stomach riddled with butterflies.
…
The flight to Washington was relatively short as always, but Ashley still took it as an opportunity to catch up on some well deserved sleep. Her mind was constantly racing and it wouldn't stop - she was still wondering about her sister's whereabouts, about her mother, about the X Men, all sorts - so sleeping was really the only amount of controlled peace that she got. Steve didn't even want to wake her up. The small aircraft had already landed in it's allocated spot and the the pilot was patiently waiting for them to get off - but Steve felt bad about it because she looked so peaceful.
Ashley came around eventually with a little undisturbed yawn, sitting up and cracking her neck as if it was nothing but a beautiful slumber.
"Oh," she frowned with a confused squint out of the plane window. "Steve? Why didn't you tell me that we'd landed?"
"You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you," Steve admitted with a slight blush crawling into his cheeks. Ashley burst out laughing and stood up, ruffling out her wavy long auburn locks and shoving on her jacket as Steve did the same.
"You are adorable, you know that? You know I nap all the time, you should never feel bad about stirring me awake," she grinned, beginning to make her way down the aircraft steps. Steve just chuckled to himself and followed her out. She was so unpredictable, and at first it concerned him but now he found it somewhat endearing.
Once he caught up with her, they both made their way to his old Manhattan apartment, which was a short walk away. Before long, the two of them were standing at his front door. "So this is where Fury fake-died, huh?" Ashley hummed as Steve rummaged in his back pocket for his key.
"Yup," he sighed quietly, unlocking the door and swinging it open before stepping aside so that she could go ahead of him. Ashley stepped through to see a number of painters and decorators in one half of the apartment, accompanied by the rough whirring sound of multiple drills becoming more prominent the further she walked in. The other side of the apartment was where the rest of Steve's belongings were cluttered together, where they must've moved everything in order to get the floor clear. As Ashley walked around with a frown, her eyes quickly landed on a suited and booted Coulson who was approaching her with a little welcoming smirk.
"Ashley! Good to finally see you again - although I gotta say, you look a little lost!" he smiled brightly once he was stood opposite her.
"I mean, I am a little," Ashley admitted with a giggle, gesturing around her. "What…what exactly are you turning this place into?"
"We're thinking of a simple update base since its right in the hub of city," Coulson explained. "Just for the newer recruits. We couldn't risk putting the entire place on the public market after…well, you know. Especially as we don't know what the rest of HYDRA are up to right now."
"I see," Ashley nodded slowly in understanding, "and so you've kinda just…shoved all Steve's stuff into one corner?"
"Hey, if your guy took any longer to come and get his trinkets, his stuff would be destroyed! These guys work fast and I did my best to delay them," Coulson defended himself with his hands risen, as they both watched Steve stare at all of his belongings to decide what to take and what to leave behind.
"Fair enough," Ashley nodded back with another laugh. "I'll leave you to it then, I'm gonna have a little nosey round." She gave Coulson's shoulder a parting squeeze before turning around to survey her surroundings, imagining Steve spending many lonely nights here. The stereo, the tapes, the countless books on the movement on technology and the environment - it was sweet but sad. She still couldn't help but feel like he needed someone, yet at the same time she didn't want to assert herself in his life higher than he would naturally.
As she reached the bookshelf closest to the front door, she accidentally bumped into a pretty blonde woman wearing a tablet and a headset, both of them clearly startled at the sight of each other. "Oh! I am so sorry," Ashley gasped.
"No, don't worry about it, my fault," the woman panted back with a small smile. "You're…you're Ashley, right?" Ashley gave a confirmative nod.
"Yeah! Yeah, I'm just here for the day…what's your name? I guess… you're from what's left of S.H.I.E.L.D?" she guessed.
"My name is Sharon - and yeah, I am," Sharon smiled back. "So has…has the Captain been assigned to you now?" Ashley blinked a few times at her question before scratching the palm of her hand with a confused giggle.
"Assigned? Oh, no. He just asked me to come along," she shrugged nonchalantly. "You know…for a 'moral support' kinda thing." Sharon's eyebrows shot up for a brief second before she expertly masked it, shaking all the surprise from her face.
"Oh! I didn't know…I didn't know he had a girlfriend," she managed to splutter in before she could stop herself, causing Ashley to let out a little 'ha!'
"He doesn't," she told her, lowering her voice. "He hasn't actually exactly asked me to be his girlfriend yet."
"Oh I see…! I just never had him pegged as the…relationship type, you know?" Sharon tried to explain, adding a little laugh to sound more jovial.
But there was something about her tone that Ashley didn't take to very well - and she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
"Well, me neither, but…life is full of surprises huh?!" she let out an awkward laugh in return and quickly dropped her gaze to the floor, just wanting this conversation to be over now. There was a small silence between them, filled with nothing but the two of them desperately attempting to find a new conversation starter to launch into.
"Have you heard from Christie recently?" Sharon asked suddenly, just as Steve happened to emerge next to them with an armful of boxes stuffed with his most precious bits. He'd missed the question but just about caught Ashley's unexpected reaction, which didn't look too good.
"Alright, what the hell does S.H.I.E.L.D know about my sister that I don't?" Ashley asked Sharon coldly, her entire demeanour changing extremely quickly. Steve shuffled a little closer to her, feeling the tension between them both begin to rise.
"I-I didn't say we knew anything!" Sharon spluttered, quickly raising her hands in her defence. Steve reached for Ashley's hand discreetly in an attempt to calm her down. "I just know she's been off the grid again and none of us know where she's gone, that's literally it-"
"Yeah? Well why don't I believe you? Unless…you know because you're actually HYDRA? Is that it?" Ashley whispered slightly threateningly. Steve sighed and tugged on her hand again, this time a little more persistently than before, forcing her to drop the act.
"C'mon Ash, let's go. Now," he insisted with a murmur, successfully pulling her behind him so that she could cool off. He shot Sharon an apologetic look and repositioned the boxes so they were balancing in his one free arm. "Sorry. It's been tough few weeks for her," was all he muttered before excusing them both. Ashley took one of the boxes from him with a face like death and stormed off, back to the car that was awaiting their arrival without another word. She was already stuffing the box into the boot, muttering words of irritation to herself as she finished packing before going to slam herself into her passenger seat, waiting for Steve to do the same so that they could leave.
Once he was seated next to her with a small groan, he shut the door and turned to face her.
"Now, what was all of that about?" Ashley bit her bottom lip and desperately held in the tears that were already threatening to fall.
"I don't know where she is, and nobody within this damn organisation will tell me what they know," she admitted a little shakily. "If this was me missing, Christie would be there trying to find out answers in a heartbeat and you know she would."
"I know, but I'm pretty sure the point is that she's not missing, Ash," Steve consoled her with a comforting hand rested on her tense shoulder. Ashley just scoffed and turned her head from him again, unable to stomach the thought of him seeing her crying yet again. "We all kinda know that Christie tends to go off the grid sometimes - it's normal for her, that's why everyone's kinda shrugging it off."
"If it's so 'normal', why did your girl back there ask me where she was? Someone within the organisation?" Ashley pointed out with a reluctant mumble.
That's when Steve understood a little better.
"My girl…oh. You don't like her, huh?" he guessed, as he started up the car and started to reverse out of the parking spot.
"No, I don't know her enough to 'not like her'," Ashley corrected him coldly, keeping her eyes focussed firmly out of the windscreen. "She just…there was something about her that I found odd. Like when she found out that I came here with you on invite and not on official request - her reaction was…weird."
"Mmm," Steve hummed back, trying not to egg on her negative feelings by explaining why Sharon might have been acting so strange.
Now wasn't the time.
"Listen, it sounds to me like you need cheering up. Do you wanna go anywhere in Washington before we head back to New York? Now that we finally have some time to ourselves?" he offered with an excitable smile. Ashley thought to herself for a few seconds, not really sure of what to suggest as she had never really been out of New York or London - until her eyes suddenly lit up,
"Oh, can we go to your exhibition? I've always wanted to go!" she gasped, turning to face him again. Steve raised an eyebrow but nodded, ready to do whatever it took to make her happy.
